obama

If Democrats don’t pass health care “reform” by March 26, then the two-week Easter recess could end up looking a lot like last August, when the American electorate made it abundantly clear that they did not favor a government takeover of health care. At least that is the intent of some Republicans, according to this story in the Washington Examiner.

“If health care doesn’t get done by Easter,” says Republican Rep. John Shadegg, “then we need to make Easter look like last August.”

The Democrats continue to push the narrative of inevitability, but even that is wearing thin, given that they have been pushing that narrative since last April. One thing for certain: never have the American people been offered such a stark difference in philosophy over the role of government than what the Democrats are trying to ram through Congress in comparison to what the Republicans would offer as solutions.

The question is whether the moderate Democrats will listen to the American people or Nancy Pelosi.

You know it’s the dog days of a cold winter in Washington when the media is captivated by the palace intrigue of the Obama White House.

The typical narrative pits the loyal, long-time Obama staffers (eg. David Axelrod) against the interloper who came on board after Obama’s election (read: Rahm Emanual).

Of course, it’s the interloper that is seen as the bad guy. In part, that is because the liberal media is more aligned with the progressive ideologues in the White House, and less with the pragmatic practitioners like Rahm.

Remember, Rahm is a veteran of the Clinton White House and there was much wailing and knashing of teeth when Obama selected him as Chief of Staff.

Now, you have a hard-core liberal Congressman who is accusing Rahm of forcing him out of office because he voted against Obama’s health care bill… not because it was too liberal, but because it wasn’t liberal enough.

Rep. Eric Massa is under investigation for inappropriate sexual conduct with a male staffer (or maybe multiple male staffers) by the ethics committee and just resigned his seat over it.

Now Massa is saying that because he was a no vote, and Pelosi needs every possible vote she can get, he was forced out. His resignation makes the magic number for her to pass the health care bill 216 votes. If he hadn’t resigned, she would have needed 217 votes. So pushing him out gives her a two-fer… it takes away a no vote and reduces the number of yes votes needed.

This follows Obama’s quote saying he would do “whatever it takes” to pass government-run health care.

And they say that right-wingers like me are conspiracy theorists…

Obama will lay out his vision on how to pass comprehensive health care reform today, defying, yet again the will of a majority of Americans who have repeatedly rejected government run health care.

Democrats know they have a short fuse on getting this passed. If they can’t pass a bill by the end of March, it is highly unlikely that they will pass anything this year. The reason is that there is a two-week recess starting on March 26. Democrat leaders know that if their members go back to their districts without a bill passed, there is no way that after two weeks of hearing from their constituents (and right before tax day) that they will pass the bill.

In politics, this is known as raw cynicism.

It is a testament to the ideology of Democrat leadership that they know that their proposal is counter to the will of most Americans, and yet they are determined to pass it any way – and change the rules to get it done.

They will pay dearly for their decision in November, but as Pelosi has said, “this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

The next three weeks will be the most important and consequential to the role of government in the lives of the American people as we have seen in my political experience.

And it scares me to death.

President Obama’s “health care summit” last week broke very little new policy ground, but one thing is clear: Democrats are determined to pass their health care bill no matter what the American people want.

Some people have asked me why the Democrats would so willfully reject the will of the American people and push try to push this through. Obama and Democrat leadership know that with every passing day, reform becomes harder to pass because the closer we get to election day, the less likely moderate Democrats are to support it. Obama, Pelosi and Reid also know that if they don’t get it done this year, it will never happen, because they are going to lose seats in both the House and the Senate in November.

Another thing to consider is the dynamic of the 2012 election. Rahm Emanuel is the smartest Democrat operative in the nation. He knows politics, and he knows history and he recognizes that if Republicans capture the House in 2010, Obama’s reelection chances in 2012 at least double. Think about Clinton’s ability to “triangulate” with the Republican majority, thereby making him look more reasonable.

So, Rahm and Obama are willing to throw as many House members into the wood chipper as it will take to pass a bill, majority be damned, because a majority is actually bad for Obama after next year. The thing to watch is whether Democrat House members will be more influenced by White House pressure, or by pressure of constituents and voters back home.

In watching the summit, I was struck by a number of things. First, I was very impressed with the Republicans strength on the policy of health care reform. President Obama repeatedly tried to cut off any Republican who spoke about portions of the current plan with which they disagree. On several occasions, the President cut off the speaker and announced that he was interested in what they liked about his plan, not what they didn’t. In other words continuing his theme that bi-partisan reform consists of Republicans agreeing to Democrats ideas.

The Democrats also attempted to dominate the amount of speaking time. The Democrats/President spoke for 233 minutes, with Republicans getting 110 minutes of speaking time. However, the Republicans were very efficient with their time and Sens. Lamar Alexander R-TN), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and House members Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Paul Ryan (R-WI) stood out in particular as hitting the main points with devastating precision. spoke about the need to eliminate (or at least reduce) waste, fraud, and abuse in health care.

At first, the Democrats were somewhat successful in appearing to agree with Republican principles and claiming their bill did many of the things Republicans were proposing. For instance, many Republicans suggested allowing the purchasing of insurance across state lines. Several Democrats insisted that their bill did just that. They were attempting to claim that their “exchanges” would do that; they do not. However, as the summit progressed, Republicans made it clear they were better prepared and had mastered the facts better than the Democrats.

At one point Senator McCain (R-AZ) made a very effective speech, noting how corrupt the process of crafting the legislation had been, including the many sweetheart deals included in the bills to buy votes. This clearly stung Obama, and the best he could come up with was a remark that the election is over – as if McCain’s points were mere political talking points used in campaigns. This was a big win for Republicans.

Finally, President Obama ended the summit by declaring that he has come a long way towards the Republicans by offering his latest proposal (which is largely the Senate-passed bill) and that now it is up to Republicans to decide which Democrat proposals they could accept. He intimated that they had the next several weeks (he mentioned 6 weeks once) to help Democrats pass their bill or he will pull it and Americans will know that Republicans put their political interests before the best interests of Americans. And then, the President noted, “that’s why we have elections.”

The media has played this as having been a “tie, going to Republicans.” If that is the MSM take, than clearly Republicans gained the most out of the summit. As has already been discussed by many commentators, Republicans brought their “A” game, while Democrats came across as mostly parroting talking points, not actually discussing solutions. Even Rush Limbaugh has said that Republicans proved him wrong by how well they did.

Here is a sampling of some of the immediate reaction in the press.

CNN’S DAVID GERGEN: “Intellectually, The Republicans Had The Best Day They’ve Had In Years.  The Best Day They Have Had In Years.” (CNN’s “The Situation Room,” 2/25/10)

· CNN’s DAVID GERGEN: “The Folks In The White House Just Must Be Kicking Themselves Right Now. They thought that coming out of Baltimore when the President went in and was mesmerizing and commanding in front of the House Republicans that he could do that again here today. That would revive health care and would change the public opinion about their health care bill and they can go on to victory. Just the opposite has happened.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

NPR’S MARA LIASSON: “I Think That The Republicans Made Their Arguments Very Well.” (Fox News, 2/25/10)

CNN’S WOLF BLITZER: “It Looks Like The Republicans Certainly Showed Up Ready To Play.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

· CNN’S WOLF BLITZER: “And The Republicans Had Less Speaking Time, But They Took Full Advantage Of Every Minute They Had.” (CNN’s “The Situation Room,” 2/25/10)

THE HILL’S A.B. STODDARD: “I Think We Need To Start Out By Acknowledging Republicans Brought Their ‘A Team.’ They had doctors knowledgeable about the system, they brought substance to the table, and they, I thought, expressed interest in the reform.  I thought in the lecture from Senator John McCain and on the issue of transparency, I thought today the Democrats were pretty much on their knees.” (Fox News’ “Live,” 2/25/10)

CNN’s GLORIA BORGER: “The Republicans Have Been Very Effective Today. They Really Did Come To Play. They Were Very Smart.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

· BORGER: “They took on the substance of a very complex issue. … But they really stuck to the substance of this issue and tried to get to the heart of it and I think did a very good job.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

· BORGER: “They came in with a plan. They mapped it out.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

POLITICO: “By The Afternoon, However, Both Sides Took A More Substantive Approach That Played To The Republicans’ Benefit, given Democratic attempts to portray them as unreasonable and partisan.” (“Six Hours Later, Stalemate Remains,” Politico, 2/25/10)

FOX NEWS’ CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: “The Republicans Really Helped Themselves. The argument against them, it’s the party of no, they have no ideas, they are against anything, they’re nihilists. In fact, they spent seven hours, I think, presenting a very strong case. They’re knowledgeable. They have ideas. They are interested in reform, but they have differences. Lamar Alexander was dazzling, Paul Ryan was rapier sharp in rebutting all of the smoke and mirrors that the democrats had presented.” (Fox News, 2/25/10)

JAMES CARVILLE: “First, In General, You’d Have To Say, By The Most Part Most Of These People Were Pretty Knowledgeable, They Had Done Their Homework … I Thought That Senator Alexander And Senator Coburn Did Great…” (CNN’s “The Situation Room,” 2/25/10)

FOX NEWS’ BRET BAIER: “Republicans Had A Strong Day Making Their Points.” (Fox News’ “Live,” 2/25/10)

WASHINGTON POST’S MICHAEL GERSON: “The Democrats’ Health-Care Ambush Failed”(Michael Gerson, Op-Ed, “The Democrats’ Health-Care Ambush Failed,” The Washington Post, 2/25/10)

The first question Republicans should ask Obama when they meet at the Blair House for the health care summit on Thursday is this: “If we turn to a government-run health care system like Canada, where will the Canadians go for their health care?”

As you may already know, Newfoundland’s Premier chose to come to the United States for surgery on his heart, rather than have it done in Canada.

Isn’t that everything we need to know about why we should have government-run health care?

National Journal’s Hotline reports that President Obama’s approval numbers are at an all-time low.  Not exactly what the White House had planned as the reaction to the State of the Union.

As a good friend of mine predicted before the speech, Obama “doubled down” on defending his policies and not moderating this actions. Even his so-called “spending freeze” was pushed off a year – to the literal laughter of Congress.

Obama has reacted by saying that he would rather be a great one-term President than a mediocre two-term President. The problem with his comment is that if a President is great, he gets reelected. Think about it. Other than JFK, name a “great” one term President.

President Obama is telling the Justice Department to find a different location than New York City for the terror trial. Mayor Bloomberg had expressed concern about the trial taking place in Manhattan and even liberal Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer wanted it somewhere else.

It begs the question: if you can’t do it in New York, where, pray tell, do you think you can do it? It certainly won’t be well received anywhere else. Maybe since Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid have been so gung ho about civilian trials of terrorists, they should do the trial in either San Francisco or Las Vegas.

Actually, Vegas seems like the perfect venue. It’s all for show anyway.

This whole episode is going to continue to damage Obama’s credibility on the war on terror, or whatever his administration calls it these days. The bottom line is that terrorists should not be tried in civilian courts in the first place.

Why blog on the State of the Union when I can post this!

Erick Erickson at Redstate.com has a post that is certain to make you angry.

Remember how the Democrats vehemently denied both the existence of the death panels and the cold nature of the decision making processes that would be invoked to save money on health care?

Well, then you should not be shocked to learn the Democrat leadership of the House of Representatives is prohibiting members of Congress from putting links to Haitian Relief efforts on their websites and encouraging donations to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other groups.

Why?

According to the House Administration Committee,

“We understand the good intentions of those making such inquiries, but the rules of the House preclude Members from using official resources for any purpose other than in support of the conduct of the Member’s official and representational duties on behalf of the district which he or she currently represents,” the letter states. “This has, in the past, been interpreted to mean that charitable solicitations using official resources are not permitted.”

But don’t worry. The House Democrats say it is permissible for members of Congress to link to the White House’s relief effort. Just not private sector charities.